404 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.
ory of a mind equipped with rare
accomplishments and of a char-
acter whose influence could not cease
with his demise.
"Yes, the grave hath quenched that
eye, and
Death's relentless frost,
Withered that arm: but the unfading fame
*
* * the remembrance
With which the happy spirit contemplates
Its well-spent pilgrimage on earth,
Shall never pass away."
ODE FOR STANTON
DAY.*
Written by Prof. George C. S. Southworth
and read at the celebration
at Kenyon College, 26th April, 1906, in
memory of her distinguished
son, Edwin McMasters Stanton.
I.
Statesman and Jurist, entered into rest
What time our grand Republic loosed her
helm
After the toils of war! Among the blest
None shines more radiant in the heavenly
realm
Than he, whose name our laureate honors
overwhelm.
STANTON, the patient, fiery, masterful
and bold,
Persistent, wielding freedom's sword of
flame,
Man cast in the Arthurian, knightly mold
Whose blazon vibrates from the trump of
fame
Down the resounding avenues of time the
same.
As some fair star ascends the arch of
night,
While round the pole the constellations
wheel,
His good report mounts brighter and more
bright,
Resplendent in the galaxy of commonweal:
Beside his tomb a reverent people kneel.
II.
His perfect courage in that hour awoke
When craven counsels paralyzed the arm
* See article on Edwin M. Stanton by
Andrew Carnegie, page 291
supra.
Ode for Stanton Day. 405
Of the supreme executive. He spoke
In stern dissent, broke the deceitful
calm,
Unmasked disunion, startled our millions
with a shrill alarm.
When nerveless leaders flung our surging
lines
Upon the southern rock, to break in
crimson foam,
His eye discerned Ulysses of the wise
designs,
Our later much-enduring hero, whom no
dome
Of Ithaca awaited, but a fane among a
grateful nation's shrines.
Impetuous of speech when vivid truth
unchained the living lightning
of his tongue
To smite the mouths of counsellors of
double things,
To speed a righteous cause on morning's
glittering wings,
To bar interminable parley; when the
sirens sung
Of peace with shame, a union bound with
chains
A soft surrender after sore and
desperate campaigns.
III.
Servant of God, as one whose saintly
blood flowed from a lineage of
blameless Friends,
He urged Emancipation ere the godlike
Lincoln breathed the fateful
word,
Which disenthralled a race and cloudless
splendor lends
To liberty,--by the Spirit of the Lord
conferred,
Till listening angels the sweet edict
heard.
At last the ermine, white and unsullied
as his spotless name,
In that august tribunal where the
general voice
Concordant hailed him with reverberant
acclaim:
Whence envious gods caught him on high,
the darling of their choice.
Rejoice ye patriots: Seraphs too
rejoice!